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Four Favorites in Olmsted Falls LbNA #59498 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Sep 11, 2011
Location: Dan Waugh Nature Trail
City:Olmsted Falls
County:Cuyahoga
State:Ohio
Boxes:4
Planted by:SouthWoods
Found by: supercrewchick (4)
Last found:Oct 22, 2011
Status:Faa
Last edited:Sep 11, 2011
This route involves some uneven stone stairs, so please watch your step. If you follow the entire trail you’ll loop back around to where you started without any backtracking – but you do have to climb a set of 54 steps at the end to get back out of the valley. If you’d prefer to avoid the stairs at the end, just backtrack the way you came once you collect the last stamp. All box locations were selected because they were relatively easy to access and didn’t have any poison ivy near them – but there is poison ivy in the park, so keep your eyes open unless you want an itchy souvenir of your trip.

Directions from I-480: Take the exit on Great Northern Blvd South toward Olmsted Falls. Great Northern Blvd. turns into Columbia Road, which you should follow south through a hard left hand turn. Just after the turn is a stop sign – turn LEFT at the stop sign onto a small road. Just before the covered bridge is an entrance to the parking lot for the library and park – park anywhere in the lot, then begin your hunt:

Enter the trail next to the “Dan Waugh Nature Trail” sign in one corner of the parking lot. Go straight on the trail to the wooden overlook with views of the waterfalls that give the town its name. If you’re so inclined, take some time to explore the rocks to the left of the overlook that form the bank of the river – you should be able to find tool marks and graffiti carved into the stones in several places. Be aware that no matter how refreshing the water looks, you should avoid drinking or swimming in it, as scenic Plum Creek is basically just runoff from parking lots and storm drains. Once you’ve explored the rocks, backtrack to the path and continue on the gravel trail that runs parallel to the river. The path becomes paved and goes under the historic covered bridge. As you emerge from under the bridge, look to your right to see the large stone blocks that form the base of the bridge. Follow the wall of blocks away from the trail until you find the section that’s straight back from the trail and has a gap at knee-level that’s plugged with a smaller light-colored rock. The COVERED BRIDGE box is inside this gap.

Return to the paved trail and follow it along the river (do not take the right-hand spur that leads uphill). Follow the paved trail to the left across the stone bridge, then take the right-hand split toward the parking lot. Walk past the brown gate and head left to the stone path that circles the pond, following the path clockwise around the pond to the parking area. People who walk quietly and have keen eyes may spot pollywogs and frogs in the pond. Straight ahead across the parking lot is a rock wall – walk to it and stand in front of it so that you are directly facing the telephone pole that’s up the hill on the main road. At about knee level you’ll see a small flat rock shoved in amongst the larger stones in the wall – check behind it for the FROG POND box. ******As of 12/24/2011, this box is missing. We'll be carving a new stamp and getting a box back in this location as soon as possible ... but we don't have any spare notebooks, so it will be a few days!******

Walk back across the parking lot to the brown gate you passed on the way in. Do not go back on the trail you used before, but take the stone steps on the left side DOWN to the river. Check out the millstone at the foot of the stairs, and walk along the edge of the river on the large rocks. The area here where Plum Creek joins the Rocky River is prime heron-spotting territory, so take a few minutes to see if the resident birds are around. When the rock you’re walking along drops off several feet straight ahead, there will be a knee-high step on your left side – take that step up onto a sandy trail. Take an immediate left and go up the first half-dozen stone steps to the first landing. Look at the rocky overhang on your right and locate the four vertical slots at ground level. The HERON box is in the right-most slot, covered up with some sticks.

Continue up the steps – watch your head under the overhang! – to come out back by the brown gate. Follow the paved path to the left over the stone bridge, then around to the left on the smaller paved path on the other side of the river. Follow the paved path as it curves to the right and joins onto a gravel trail. The river bank along here is littered with dinner-plate-sized stones that the crayfish like to hide under, so you might want to take one of the side trails down to the river to explore a bit. When you’re ready, take the gravel trail up river … up some steps, down some steps, then keep to the right to go up an S-shaped set of stone stairs. At the top of the steps is a fence that heads from the path toward the river. Start counting your strides at that point, and on the 13th stride you should be near a tree stump that borders the path on your left. The roots of the stump form an overhang, and the CRAWDAD box is hidden in that area behind a piece of broken brick and some tree bark.

At this point your hunt is over. You can either backtrack the way you came, or continue along the river on the gravel path. When you reach a board fence that runs along the top of a bluff, wrap around to the right and use the wooden and metal stairway to climb out of the river valley. At the top of the steps, follow the sidewalk on your right past the side of the church to the corner, then turn to your right and follow the sidewalk past the front of the church. The entrance to the parking lot where you began is on your left just before the covered bridge.

Thank you for trying out our very first letterbox adventure – we hope you liked it! Please contact us at avonhokie@yahoo.com to let us know if you’ve got suggestions, or if the boxes need maintenance. Thanks again, and see you around the trails! - The SouthWoods